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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Week Tres!!!

Mi familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so. um. I am a missionary. Weird huh? Sometimes it just doesnt seem real to me... But yeah. Hermana Goudie here. Going on week 4. Oh and Happy Halloween everyone! They dont really celebrate that here but they do have Dia de los Muertos on Noviembre uno y dos. So thats cool. Excepto I probably wont get to try their signature pan de la muertos. Which is supposedly really yummy bread that they make for this holiday. For those of you that no entiendo espanol dia de los muertos means day of the dead. Weird right? They celebrate the dead people. Oh Mexico. How I love you. }

So I actually had a WAY cool experience this week that really made me realize that I really am a missionary! We had a sub for our morning class because mi maestro (teacher) Hermana Coleman decided to go out and hike some waterfalls or something cool like that. The teachers like to brag about how they can leave the walls of this place while we are trapped inside for 6 weeks with no way out! Just kidding we get to go out every other P day to go to the temple which was today by the way and it was great ;) And Im kinda making it sound like its bad being trapped here and thats not necessarily what I mean. I love it here! Its just sometimes I wish I could go hike to some cool waterfalls or go see Wicked! Yeah thats right. They had a touring company of Wicked come here. And yes. It was in Spanish. And yes. My other teacher Hermano Smith went out and saw it. NOT FAIR. So... back to my long lost story. Our sub had us go out during our class time and go and give a little message about Joseph Smith to whoever around the campus. It could be other missionaries or other teachers or workers or whoever we felt like needed to hear it. Right before we left she said not to be afraid to ask for a reference and have them write down their name and address. Like a family member that they might have that wanted to hear about the gospel. Our sub also said that there are a few workers here that arent members. So Hermana Murri and I go a walkin down the street and see this worker with his head down inside the ground digging at who knows what and we both knew. This is who we had to talk to. So... we walk up to him and I dont even think he knows we are standing there until we say hi and then he finally pulls his head out of the ground. We ask how hes doing and tell him we have a message about Joseph Smith for him and at the end of the message I asked if he believed in what we were saying. He said that hes not familiar with Jose Smith. We didnt know if he was a member or not so Hemana Murri then asked if he was a member. He said no. We then asked if he believed in God. He said yes. We asked if he had a Book of Mormon. He said no. We testified of the Book of Mormon and then of Joseph Smith and then asked if we could have him write down his name and address so the missionaries here could teach him more about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. He said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a missionary. And his name is Juan. Me gusta Juan! I dont think you are actually say me gusta with people but Im saying it anyways. I was so excited! It was so cool. And yes this was all in Spanish. Broken spanish mind you but spanish nonetheless. It just really hit me when I was actually teaching a real person named Juan. All of our other teaching happens with our teachers who are pretending to be someone else. But Juan! HE WAS REAL!!! And we told him about Joseph Smith. HOW COOL?????? Being a missionary is the best!

So now to just the random events of the week. Dad thank you so much for that Tide to Go! It has saved me multiple times but more than me the Elders in my district use it EVERY. MEAL. Seriously. Its almost gone though :( I guess I should stop letting the Elders use it... PING PONG! Its the best sport ever. During gym mi companera likes to play basketball or soccer but honestamente I just would rather play ping pong. Todo el dia cada dia ;) The other day I played with a bunch of nativos and it was just great. I beat a lot of them. Im just pro is really all it is. And Im super humble about it too ;)

This week we had our first TRC which is where members from Mexico (occasionalmente there are non members that come if they get talked into it) and we go in as companionships and teach them with whatever. Our purpose it to invite others unto Christ so we usually just find out if they are struggling with anything and share a scripture or two with them. It was scary but good. My companion is the bomb.com at Espanol and I dont know what I would do without her.

Another game us missionaries find interesting here en la CCM is this game called What are the Odds. So what you do is think of something super embarassing like What are the Odds you will trip up on the stage during a devotional in front of everyone while walking up for your musical number (one elder had to do that it was funny) or come up with some disgusting concoction at dinner with whatever there is and say what are the odds you will drink this? Anyways so then you have to pick like 1 to 10 or 1 to 5 or 1 to 50 if you really dont want to have to do it and then someone counts down from 3 and at the same time you and whoever is challenging you has to say a number between whatever numbers you previously decided to do and if you say the same number you have to do whatever you were playing for. Does that make any sense? Anyways so Hermana Murri did it to me the other day and I had to eat whatever Hermana Pettit was eating off of her fork every time she went to take a bite and she didnt know what was going on. It was hilarious. Tonight hermana Murri has to make a necklace out of fruit loops and wear it around. Haha :)

The other night Hermana Bain and I had a race down our hall in our casa with cardboard boxes. It was great. Oh and we got natives in our casa today! So cool! Except they speak so fast I cant understand what they are saying! But there are 4 of them and they are so cute! My districts musical number went really well! So funny story. You know how randomly on Sundays they call out 6 people to speak. So I had a lesson planned and whatever. But right at the last second before Sacrament started Hermana Pratt and President Pratt (The President of the MTC) walked into our branches Sacrament (keep in mind there are only about 30 people in my branch and a lot of them have already spoked and I havent) an Elder in front of me then turns around and says Good luck. You are speaking today. I saw your name on the program. I started freaking out a little bit. But the Elders in my district like to tease me a lot and he was just joking thank goodness. But Pres. Pratt got to hear our musical number. So that was fun!

So on Tuesdays Hermana Murri and I try to only speak Spanish. I forgot to tell you this last week. But last week and yesterday we only spoke espanol. It is so hard but really good practice. Our days are usually a lot funnier those days because we end up saying things we dont mean and not understanding excatly what eachother means and what not. Its great.

Savanna Elder Backus is here. Cody Backus. It was funny I was in the post office because Hermana Murri had to send something and in the window I saw a note that said Elder Cody Steven Backus you have one package. I was like Hey I know him! And I was always trying to find him. Donde esta Elder Backus. But I finally found him. And hes doing great! So this Sunday night we watched the Joseph Smith movie. It was wonderful. I love watching movies on Sunday nights! Oh and the other day I ran a mile in 10 min. Thats right I am getting better. Thats what happens when you have a companion that wants to run like 3 miles everyday. Shes so good at running.

Yesterday because we got natives in our room we were locked out of our room because for some reason they had to change our keys (they are like hotel keys) and so we had to reactivate them and we went back to change for gym and realized they didnt work and the guy that is supposed to change them was eating lunch so we did gym in our skirts for like 45 min. I just played Ping Pong so it wasnt bad but we kept getting weird looks from everyone because we were in the gym in our skirts. Oh well. Who cares right? Yesterday we also had servicio. I dont know if I mentioned this last time but we folded sheets. And guess what we did again for our third time? Fold sheets. Im pretty much a pro folder sheeter (yes its a real occupation in my head) so I should probably work at a hotel when I get back ;) After service we had some time so we played soccer with a bunch of other hermanas. It was just dandy. And hot. Hows the weather there by the way? Its still in the 70s here. Not to brag or anything. There actually was a hurricane a few hours away so it got pretty cold at the beginnning of the week but now its nice and hot again. Just the way I like it. Tuesdays are great. We get pizza from Costco for dinner every Tuesday. MMMMMmmmmm!!!!!!

So today we went to the temple and we had to do everything in Spanish this time. Last time was in English but this time we had to listen to it and say everything in Spanish. Lets just say it was interesting. Well thats it for this week. Love you all. Pictures are on the way. I have to hurry though. Only 15 minutes left. Ah! It is so hard to email everyone I want to in one hour so dont be offended if I dont email you back. Hopefully in the field I will have more time. But I love you all and thank you so much for all the emails and pictures and love you have shown me. Adios amigos!

Love, Hermana Goudie

Elder Bagley and Mi Companera

A cute nativo that left on Monday. :(

Our first real reference JUAN!!!!!!!! The missionaries here in the ciudad better teach him this week or else... ;)

We got a little fiesty in el bano...

Mi districto es loco!!!

At the temple today with Hermana Pettit and Hermana O very. They live in nuestra casa.Oh and by the way we sang himnos all the way to the temple today in espanol . It was so fun!!!